Some Teens Unaware of City Offerings

Dannie White, 17, would like to be working but he never got around to filling out job applications when school let out, so instead he spends his summer watching T.V. –  Teletubies to be exact.

Dannie is one of many teenagers who sink into lazy habits during the summer. Since he thought working was the only option to fill his days, he didn’t bother to find out about other activities that don’t involve getting paid.

“I’m not doing anything productive,” said Dannie, who would like to be a lawyer someday. His day’s hardest decision usually involves whether he should stay at home and watch SpongeBob or play basketball in the park. “I would rather be working but I’m very lazy in the summer,” said Dannie.

Dannie is one of the many teenagers that are not engaged in any activities during the summer time. Though there are many programs that Dannie can be involved in, such as those run by the Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD).

DYCD is a city agency that focuses on the way teenagers use their personal time. “Trying to make sure that teens are scheduled from 3 to10 p.m. is our main focus since it seems that’s the time where most crimes happen,” said Denise Williams, the general manager of DYCD.

“Literacy programs, Summer Youth job programs, sports programs, volunteer programs will help interact with others, to have more things that they look forward to,” said Williams. “By attending extra programs during the summer, it is a great way to build resumes, and get better connections with the people the teenagers worked with,” said Williams.

“We made accounts on different sites such as YouTube, MySpace, Facebook and Twitter, so that teens could interact with us through the way a teen knows,” said Williams.

Even Williams admits that it isn’t easy for a teenager to find many of the programs that are available.

“Many of the DYCD programs aren’t reaching teens even through these websites and that’s because they don’t know where to look,” said Williams.

Dannie’s mother, Marie White, a law student, said, “It’s up to both me and Dannie to help him get engaged and I feel I wasn’t as engaged as I should be as a parent.”

Dannie is not the only teenager who feels he is unaware of the many programs that are available because he does not know where to look.

Oddisey Jones, 17, a high school student whose dreams of becoming a veterinarian, said, “There is nothing else I could look for. There is nothing else I could find.”

For teenagers like Oddisey and Dannie, there are many opportunities out there that they can get if they would only know where to find them.

“Teenagers can call or sign up with Youth Connect at 1-800-246- 4646,” said Williams. “There is this saying that states if you don’t plan to succeed, you plan to fail. Teenagers are our future, they are the next generation instead of wasting summers, do something productive.”